What you drink counts in your calories for the day

It's easy to forget that fruit juice, sodas, sweetened ice tea, and café mocha, all add up. Water is always your best bet as a refreshing drink. Add a slice of lemon or lime for flavor. Or a crushed strawberry, a few raspberries or a peach slice. You can keep a pitcher of ice water on your desk, or kitchen counter and it will remind you to drink more. Keep single serving bottles in the freezer to grab on your way out. Put the bottled water in front of the juice, milk, and sodas and you'll be tempted to drink the water instead of the other liquids. Just cutting out two sodas a day can significantly drop your calorie count.

Plan for your snacks

Plan for your snacks so you won't be hitting the vending machines or the cookie jar. There are lots of prepackaged alternatives at the grocery store that offer low fat, low calorie, but tasty snacks. Prepackaged costs more than the big bags but you get portion control in return. You can also package up your own snacks. Keep the calorie count to about 100. Fresh fruit and veggies are a given, but you can also have popcorn without the butter, saltine crackers with low fat cheese, a cup of soup, a handful of nuts, or pretzel sticks. Put your selected snacks in a zip lock bag and place in the fridge, when you feel the urge, they'll be ready and waiting.

Sensible Eating Habits

Have breakfast. Skipping breakfast leads to low blood sugar mid morning which results in cravings for sugary foods to pump the blood sugar back up. A vicious cycle results and continues throughout the day. Your breakfast should consist of whole grains, a protein source and fruit. It doesn't have to be fancy. A slice of whole wheat toast spread with a tablespoon of low fat peanut butter and an apple will do just fine. Or you could mix ½ cup of nonfat cottage cheese with chopped fresh peaches and a couple of whole wheat crackers. Another possibility is a scrambled egg served on an English muffin with a glass of orange juice.

If you work outside the home, brown bag your lunch. It's tempting to run out to the nearest fast food joint for a high fat, high carb lunch. If you pack your lunch you have control of what you eat and won't be tempted by a burger and fries. If you have a fridge and microwave at your office, and who doesn't these days, you can serve up a delicious salad and soup lunch. As an added benefit you will save money. The average fast food lunch these days costs around $7.00. And you can use the time you save to run errands, relax or take a walk around the block

Burn the Fat

Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is the perfect book for those that want to follow a healthy eating plan and who really want to understand the science of weight loss and muscle building. It combines a specific exercise plan to compliment the healthy eating and to help you lose more weight.

Of course, everyone knows that you should eat healthy food, but this book makes you actually want to.

What's most interesting about this book, I believe, is that it also offers suggestions of what you can do if the plan isn't working for you. Other diets assume that if you are not losing weight on their plan, you are doing something wrong. Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle actually helps you to figure out what needs to be better and how to tweak it.

The goal setting section of the book also makes it particularly motivating. Venuto offers specific suggestions as to how to incorporate goal planning into your life...and not just goal planning for weight loss.

While some people may be initially put off by the cost of the ebook, it's important to point out that this book is much more comprehensive than most other diet books. And many other diet and fitness programs actually come with a higher price tag, though it's split up into lower monthly payments.

If you're serious about not just losing weight, but about eating healthy and maintaining an active lifestyle, then Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle is the right plan for you.

However, there's nothing particularly bad about this style of eating. If following the Blood Type Diet is a reasonable way for you to begin a healthy eating program, then this is the right diet for you.

Is the Atkins Diet For You?

The Atkins Diet is the grand daddy of the quick weight loss diets. It's based on severely limiting carbohydrates. Carbs are processed by the body to become sugar or glucose. Glucose is used by the body for energy. If the carbs consumed for the day aren't enough, the body transforms the fat it has stored back into glucose for energy. Carbs also cause the blood sugar to spike which signals the body to produce insulin to remove the sugar from the bloodstream. This causes the blood sugar to drop which results in a craving for more carbs to raise it back up. That's the basis of the Atkin's Diet. Severely limit carbohydrates in the daily diet and the body has to fall back on its fat storage for energy.

The initial two week kick start program only allows 20 grams of carbs per day. The carbs from fiber are netted – subtracted from the total carb count. So for example, while ¼ cup of blueberries has a total carb count of 5.1 grams, only 4.1 grams are counted because 1 gram is from fiber.

Protein such as fish, chicken, beef, and pork contains 0 grams. The diet allows cheese and eggs. Seafood is tricky, some, like shrimp, have 0 grams and others like oysters, pack a walloping 12.5 grams per 6 oz. You can have limited amounts of green vegetables such as spinach, kale, broccoli, asparagus, and cabbage. Fruit is not allowed. To give you examples of carb counts, an apple has a net 16 grams of carbs, a slice of wheat bread has 12 carbs. Alcohol in any form is not allowed during the kickoff stage. An exercise period of 30 minutes per day is mandatory.

After the initial two weeks, carbs are gradually and slowly added back to the diet, fruits and vegetables first. Some vegetables like sweet potatoes (19) and corn (14 per 1/3 cup) contain too many carbs to ever become a regular part of the diet. The maximum level of carbs at this stage should be between 30 to 35. The objective is to continue losing weight but at a lesser rate than the initial two week period. If the weight loss stops the number of carbs being consumed has to decrease again.

The maintenance diet is at a level of carbs where you've stopped losing weight and don't gain weight. It maxes out at about 40 grams of carbs per day. A turkey sandwich with mayo and sliced tomatoes is about 30 grams of carbs. A medium pear has 21 and one cup of 2% milk has 11.

Sugar, processed foods, flour and starches, such as potatoes and rice are pretty much off limits forever on the Atkins Diet. Most fruits have to be eaten in moderation if at all and certain vegetables as well.

The South Beach Diet: Is It the Diet For You?

The South Beach Diet is similar to the Atkins Diet in that it has an initial two week phase I period that drastically reduces carbs. The difference between Atkins and South Beach is that there are good carbs and bad carbs. The glycemic index of a food is what counts. The glycemic index is how much a food increases blood sugar compared to the amount that same quantity of white bread would increase blood sugar.

A spike in the blood sugar or glucose, signals the pancreas to make more insulin. The insulin's job is to get the sugar out of the blood stream into the organs for energy or into storage. The body stores glucose as fat. Keeping the blood sugar from spiking means less insulin is produced which means the sugars are absorbed slowly resulting in a steady level of decreasing sugar levels rather than a rush. Low blood sugar leads to cravings for sugary foods and over eating. And the cycle starts again.

Bad carbs spike the blood sugar. Good carbs don't. Good carbs are those from foods which contain a lot of fiber, such as whole grains or contain fiber and water such as fruit. The body takes longer to digest the good carbs so they enter the blood stream more slowly.

The longer food takes to digest the better. For example a piece of raw broccoli is better than cooked because your body has to work harder to digest the raw broccoli. The faster carbohydrates are digested, the more quickly they're turned into sugar – glucose, and the more likely they will be turned to stored fat.

Fiber, protein and fats slow down the digestive system which means the blood sugar rises slowly and falls slowly. The tendency to over eat is diminished and the onset of hunger delayed.

The South Beach Diet limits fats and oils and encourages the consumption of lean cuts of meat and low fat cheeses. Vegetables and fruits are allowed after the initial phase I - two week period. Whole grains can be added back including whole grain bread. White breads, cookies, cakes, rice, potatoes, and sugar are off limits except for special occasions.

The South Beach Diet is a change in eating patterns for life, but other than the forbidden processed foods, white flour, and sugar, the diet is reasonably manageable. It allows a broader selection of foods than the Atkins diet.

Walk Off the Weight

Exercise combined with a few changes in your diet can melt off the pounds in no time. But if you think exercise means hours sweating in the gym, think again. As with any new exercise program check with your doctor before proceeding.

Studies have shown that walking at a brisk pace has the same benefits to your heart as jogging, with less stress to your joints. Walkers are less prone to injuries than joggers. A brisk pace means that you can talk while you’re walking without gasping for air. If you can sing a tune you’re going too slow. You should be able to keep up the pace for 30 to 60 minutes without a lot of stress.

If your goal is to lose a pound a week you have to either increase your exercise to burn up 3500 calories or decrease your food intake by 3500 calories. On a daily basis that means a change of 500 calories. Walking a mile takes the average person 15 minutes and burns up 100 calories. So you’d have to walk about five miles a day, or spend an hour and fifteen minutes walking to lose a pound a week.

You don’t need a lot of expensive equipment to start walking. A good pair of walking shoes is essential, but other than you don’t need much of anything else. Wear loose clothing of natural fibers so if you sweat, the moisture will be wicked away from your body and evaporate. Wear sun block and a hat.

You can walk at any time of day (or night for that matter). Some people prefer the morning because it gives them a boost of energy for the day. Others prefer at the end of the day so they can unwind.

Start your walking program with a 15 minute walk for a few days in a row. Then gradually increase the time by five minutes. By the end of two weeks you should be up to 30 to 45 minutes a day. You’re burning 200 to 350 calories without any changes in your diet. After six months you’ll have lost from 12 – 20 pounds. If you want to accelerate the weight loss, walk faster, cover more ground in the same amount of time.

If you decrease the amount of food you eat by 200 calories a day you double the weight loss. 200 calories isn’t really that much of a sacrifice. For example regular salad dressing has about 100 calories per tablespoon; a serving size is two tablespoons, so substituting nonfat salad dressing would save 200 calories. A 3.5 inch bagel with two tablespoons of cream cheese is about 400 calories. Eat half of the bagel instead of the whole one, and you’ve saved your 200 calories. A glass of whole milk is 150 calories, skim milk is 90, if you drink 3 glasses of milk a day you save 180 calories by switching to skim.

There you have it: an easy way to lose weight, increase your fitness level and strengthen your cardiovascular system and all you did was take a walk.